Surrendered Pets May Face Euthanasia - Hopes for Adoptions Slim in Disaster Areas

Katrina Surrendered Pets - Tickets to Ride but No-Where to Go!

There are many animals, ready to travel to new homes, but there is no-where for them to go.

Many residents in the New Orleans, Mississippi disaster area are surrendering their beloved pets post-Katrina. They took their pets with them when they evacuated, but they returned to devastated homes, homes no longer pet-friendly with fences down, and toxic dust and hazardous waste everywhere.

St. Bernard looking for a Home!

Returning residents also found themselves overcrowded with relatives and friends who have moved in with them, leaving no room for pets. Some pet owners are now living in FEMA trailers with size restrictions on dogs, or private trailer parks or apartments with no-pet policies.

Guardians find themselves out of jobs, or incapable of handling the vet bills for animals who are suffering all kinds of ailments from heartworm, to neurological disorders from the toxins.

Many shelters were completely wiped out by the storms. Surrendered dogs are taken to the painfully few remaining shelters that are bursting at the seams. The LA SPCA-LA, St. Bernard Parish Animal Shelter-LA, Placquemine Parish Animal Control-LA, Humane Society, Southern Mississippi, Biloxi Animal Shelter, St. Frances, Waveland, and Jefferson Parish were completely destroyed. Shelters that did survive were too damaged to operate. FEMA and State funds for repairs were earmarked elsewhere or just too slow to offer any immediate relief. http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=hurricane_stories_shelters

Add to that the fact that many shelter employees and volunteers are gone for good, leaving the huge task to a handful of local shelter workers and precious few volunteers. Many shelters desperately need assistance with animals. There is no normalcy at the shelters. For some it is impossible to keep up with the daily chores. Shelter workers spend all their time in care and feed and taking care of animals with Katrina aggravated medical conditions. They have little or no time to implement adoption events, or spay neuter programs. They are open only a few hours a week to do adoptions. Their regular volunteers have left town or are rebuilding their own lives and homes and looking for paying jobs.

There are dissenting opinions on whether there still is a large population of stray animals, with local animal rescue groups convinced that there are thousands still out there hiding under homes, taking care of new litters and both cats and dogs running feral.

The truth is that there is no longer the huge local population to sustain ready adoptions of pets dropped off at shelters. Orleans Parish Pre-Katrina’s population of 500,000 now is down to about 190,000; Jefferson’s’ 550,00 is down to 400,000; St. Bernard’s is down from 65,500 to 12,000. Only two parishes Jefferson and St. Charles are holding their population values. See Stats. http://www.nola.com/katrina/pdf/sixmonths.pdf.

With Best Friends leaving New Orleans, a kind of panic has set in with local animal rescuers.
"Please help us. We are here, in New Orleans area. It's desperate. We are pulling animals from shelters where they are gassed and taking them off the streets -- but we have nowhere to send them. We cannot even drop them off to the local places, like Larno & Best Friends (Best Friends is leaving), as they have nowhere to send them. We have dogs in our cars now. PLEASE HELP!
If everyone made a few calls we could solve this." reads Karen’s Rescue List.

MuttShack Animal Rescue volunteers historically have specialized in just this type of situation. Volunteers save animals from kill shelters on their last days of life. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina MuttShack set up a Triage Center at the Lake Castle School in New Orleans with the gymnasium to hold dogs, and the school pavillion set up for cats, with two medical clinics and a research lab and ICU unit. With school back in session, their facility capable of holding 300 animals is shut down. Now they are back to the familiar daily euthanasia lists they get from shelters.

"MuttShack can pull animals from kill shelters, but we need everyone to help us find homes. We have transport! Come on guys... we really really need your networking magic... “ says a post.

MuttShack posts animals that need homes on NO Angels - Katrina Cats, NO Angels - Katrina Dogs lists. Many animals posted must be rescued usually within 24 hours. It is a scramble to get someone to commit to taking the pet, someone else to run to the shelter and file paperwork and pay bail, another person to hold the animal, and yet another to transport them to their new home. Then the new owner faces vet bills, spay neuter, heartworm and often kennel cough.

It is terribly sad that animals who survived Katrina, Rita and Wilma storms, and months of starvation or who were held close by their owners during the evacuations, now face the sad reality that there is not enough people in the city to offer them new homes or care. Shelters will have no alternative but to start euthanizing. Some already do.

Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) a non-profit organization and network of airline employees and others who volunteer as "Ambassadors of Goodwill" have offered to transport animals to wherever they need to go. The critical thing now is finding homes, far far away. Any shelters with no-kill policies, and a good record of moving animals into homes is asked to please contact MuttShack Animal Rescue at info@muttshack.org.